Delhi mystery death victims showed no signs of struggle

Source: The Hitavada Date: 03 Jul 2018 08:22:01

NEW DELHI,

EIGHT of the 11 members of a family found dead in their home in north Delhi’s Burari locality showed no signs of struggle and died as a result of hanging, officials said on Monday after the post-mortem of all the victims was completed.While the preliminary report of eight victims is ready, the autopsy details of three are awaited.

Ten of the 11 members of the Bhatia family were found hanging from an iron-mesh in the ceiling on Sunday, while the body of 77-year-old Narayan Devi, the head of the family, was lying on the floor in another room of the house.“The post-mortem of all the 11 bodies has been carried out. Our team finished the process by 3 pm. Two boards were formed to expedite the post-mortem. The final report has been handed to he police,” LNJP Hospital Medical Superintendent J C Passey told PTI. The dead included Narayan Devi’s two sons and their families as well as two 15-year-old boys. The post-mortem of eight persons, including the two children and their grandmother, revealed there were no signs of strangulation or scuffle and they died as a result of hanging, a senior police officer said.

Though it was earlier suspected that Narayan died due to strangulation, doctors said she had died due to “partial hanging”, a police officer asserted. He added that a rope was found hanging near her body and it is being probed who took it off her neck. “From the initial examination, it seems that they all died due to ante-mortem hanging. The final report is awaited,” the officer said. Handwritten notes found at the spot point to a possible suicide pact, carried out in accordance with a religious practice, he said.

Some of the notes stated that “one will not die” but attain something “great”, the officer said. Those who were found hanging had their mouth taped and their faces covered with cloth pieces cut from a single bed sheet. Only Narayan’s face was not covered. The deceased were identified as Narayan, who was found dead on the floor, her daughter Pratibha (57) and her two sons, Bhavnesh (50) and Lalit Bhatia (45). Bhavnesh’s wife Savita (48) and their three children - Meenu (23), Nidhi (25) and Dhruv (15) were among the deceased. Lalit Bhatia’s wife Tina (42) and their 15-year-old son Shivam were also among those found dead along with Pratibha’s daughter Priyanka (33), who was engaged last month and was supposed to get married by the end of the year. Locals said Meenu was preparing for entrance exams and Nidhi was pursuing her Masters. The Bhatias ran a grocery stone and a plywood outlet in the neighbourhood.

The eyes of the 11 members of a family who were found dead here - 10 hanging from the ceiling and one body on the floor - were donated to an eye bank on Monday.The eyes of the deceased were donated to the Guru Nanak Eye Centre as the relatives said the family was religious and always wanted to help others. “The family always helped others and by donating their eyes they can help 22 people as one pair of eyes can give sight to two people,” a relative told media on Monday.

Occultist, aide questioned

NEW DELHI,

The notes found in the house said, “when you all were hanging during that period, God will miraculously appear and save you all at the moment”

POLICE on Monday said an occultist and his accomplice were detained for questioning in the mysterious mass deaths of 11 members of a Delhi family on Sunday.Police said it recovered handwritten notes in the prayer area of their two-storey house in Pant Nagar in Burari, revealing a possible mystical connection to the deaths. All but one of the bodies were found hanging from the ceiling. Most of them were blindfolded, gagged and their hands tied behind the back.

The notes hinting at mysticism were found in a diary in the prayer area. The texts of pages discussed spirituality, salvation, rituals and few dates of last month. Articles used for offering in worship such as ghee and grains were also recovered from the house.

The police suspect the role of an occultist or a godman. “We are suspecting that the family may have died in a ritual which went wrong,” a police officer said. The officer said the notes had instructions like: “Everyone should be blindfolded properly, nothing but zenith should be visible to the eyes. “Worship the banyan tree for seven days at a stretch with devotion. If somebody comes home, then do it the next day. Choose Thursday and Sunday for this. “If the elderly woman can’t stand, she can lie down in another room. “Use dim light for offering rituals. Offer the rituals between 12 and 1 a.m. so that no one disturbs you.

“When you all were hanging during that period, god will miraculously appear and save you all at the moment.” The police officer said almost every instruction in the note seemed to have been followed by the family for “obtaining salvation”. The notes mention about doing a ‘jaap’ before starting the rituals and think about ‘shunya’, so that other thoughts do not cloud their minds.

The notes ask the participants to “be cautious” when performing the rituals. They say that participants won’t cook food at home and keep their phones on silent mode for six hours on the day they perform the rituals. The notes also instruct that one person has to stand guard to ensure others have hanged themselves. Police suspect the family had ordered food from outside and are trying to find from where they had ordered the food.